1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to metal detectors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Restaurants, hotels, medical facilities and other businesses and establishments, often have a difficult time visually sorting metal items, which would normally be re-used, from waste products being discarded. Restaurant and hotel employees often, unintentionally, discard silverware and flatware when cleaning plates. Hospital employees may discard medical or surgical instruments that are designed to be re-used. Others may discard recyclable or reusable metal items unintentionally. Hospital employees may inadvertently discard needles into a container that is meant for other purposes. Metal detectors can be used to detect metal items such as silverware, flatware, medical instruments and recyclables; however, existing metal detectors are not properly designed for the task. A metal detector needs to be physically adapted for the use to which it will be put. For example, a metal detector used for security purposes would not be practical or useful for finding metal objects in trash, in a quick and convenient manner. Restaurants typically must replace lost silverware and flatware that has been accidentally discarded with food scraps, leading to additional operating expense. Similarly, hospitals and other establishments may accidentally dispose of instruments, leading to additional expense.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a metal detector that can alert employees to the presence of metal objects being placed in a trash can unintentionally.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a detector that can detect metal objects.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a detector that can be mounted on top of a trashcan, or other receptacle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an alert to the user/employee that a metal object has been discarded in said trashcan or receptacle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means to adjust the sensitivity of the detector so as to detect only those items typically discarded by accident in such an establishment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a record of the number of metal objects that have been discarded, with provisions for a supervisor or other person to prevent others from resetting the counter number to zero.
Other objects and many of the attendant features of this invention will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed descriptions and considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference symbols designate like parts throughout the figures.